Yes, but the difference is in this country, when angry people do horrific things, we try to find them and put them in jail. In the Middle East, they bribe them to not target their gov'ts or they actively fund them to take their terrorism to other Western gov'ts.
I think the general rule is that the Saudis would like to find OBL and kill him. However, the Saudi royal family is big...........there are some who like what OBL is doing and support him. It seems crazy since OBL is a sworn enemy of the royal family but then there are other cases in history where the haves support the very have nots that would topple them.
Adding to the confusion, Islam is not a monolithic religion. There are the Sunnis and Shia who very much disagree with each other. And then within the Sunni sect, there are the stricter Wahabis who act as autocratic censors for the rest of Islam.
The American war of independence was very narrowly targeted. We fought Brits and won our independence. The Islamic terrorism really isn't a war of independence, because if they wanted an Islamic state, they could just go live in Saudi Arabia or they should have been satisfied with living in Afghanistan, instead of deciding to attack us. Instead, theirs is a war of intolerance of other cultures. As such, we have no choice but to fight until they are destroyed or until they learn that what needs to change is their belief that the whole world is evil, excepting themselves.
First and foremost, do you think there would be terrorists in the numbers there are in the ME if their home countries were democratic, fair and prospering? I think the rest of the world would experience terrorism in the way we experience domestic terrorism: occasionally, a disgruntled American does a violent act of domestic terrorism like McVey in OK City but they are the exception not the rule.
Overt and excessive terrorism occurs wherever there is significant repression. We are fond of suggesting that ME terrorism is a sick reflection of Islam. However, the truth is terrorism has occurred throughout the world and been perpetrated by people of many different cultures and religions. A classic modern example is Northern Ireland.
Certainly, we don't like comparing our FF to modern day terrorists but the Brits of King George's time did not view our American FF as nice people. To some Brits, they viewed our FF in the same way we view the ME terrorists........as barbarics.
I don't condone terrorism but to ignore the reasons behind acts of terrorism and to suggest that we are able to kill every last terrorist in the world is a fool's game. As long as there is economic and/or political repression, there will be terrorism.
IMO to cure the world of terrorism or at least to reduce its impact will require a multi faceted approach that depends more on intel than military prowess. It will also require that we stop supporting repressive gov'ts and instead use carrots to encourage the implementation of democratic and economic reform.
Do you think there would be nearly as many terrorists in the world if everyone's home country had strong democratic institutions and solid economic opportunities? I don't. That should be our goal as a superpower........economic and democratic reform throughout the world...........and not just on paper and in our flowery speeches but for real.
ted |
